'35
to Indian vocabulary. A critical study of the Siamese
language should be undertaken by Indian scholars.
The Siamese language has been studied scienti-
fically by many foreign scholars, The chief amon,*
them was Pallegoix, ' whose Siamese dictionary is
a stupendous monument of research and industry,"
but he failed to assign true etymology to many
Siamese words. In 1862, Van der Tuuk collected
many Malay loan words in the Siamese language in
his Taalkimdige Aanieekeningen. Dr. Frankfurter
has also written Elements of Siamese Grammar.
In 1902, Dr» Gustave Sehlegel of Leiden, published his
Siamese Studies. It would serve to expound those
phonetical laws which shall enable the student to
recognise the original form of the foreign words bor-
rowed by the Siamese'.
About the Siamese grammar. Dr. Schlegel says
that the Siamese grammar like that of the other
languages of transgangetic India, is entirely Malay,
We have in both grammars the subject before the
predicatef the object of a verb following the verb,
the adjective and genitive following the substantive
and the adverb following the verb. In Aryan and
Chinese language, this order, however is inverted.1
When the Siamese borrowed Indian words, they
reduced the polysyllabic Indian words to monosjl-
lables putting double points between the single
^1) Siamese Studies, i'j> A-8.